More companies expect to increase net hiring in the second quarter of 2004 than they had planned three months ago for the current quarter or than was planned one year ago, a survey released Tuesday shows. ... After seasonal adjustment, however, the net percentage of firms indicating hiring over layoffs moved up to 20% compared with 13% in the first quarter and 11% in the second quarter of 2003. .... Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and chief executive of Milwaukee-based Manpower, the nation's largest staffing company ... sounded a cautious note that while "the surveys did capture the pickup in payroll jobs over the past two quarters, we're not likely to see increases as large as 200,000 per month." ....

"[W]hen seasonal variations are removed from the data, the job outlook in seven of the sectors is more robust than it has been in three years since the second quarter of 2001," he said.